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PODCAST

Bay Curious

Bay Curious is a show about your questions – and the adventures you find when you go looking for the answers. Join host Olivia Allen-Price to explore all aspects of the San Francisco Bay Area – from the debate over "Frisco", to the dinosaurs that once roamed California, to the causes of homelessness. Whether you lived here your whole life, or just arrived, Bay Curious will deepen your understanding of this place you call home.

society & culture places & travel

All Episodes

22:28

Bears, Coyotes, Mountain Lions While Hiking or...

Bay Curious ·

2025/09/25

As we go about our lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and explore this beautiful state, it's not uncommon to encounter wild animals. Whether you're hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains and see warnings about mountain lions, or camping in Tahoe where bears have learned human ways, there are some things to know about how to stay safe. KQED's audience desk reporters Sarah Wright and Carly Severn join us with helpful tips about how to coexist in nature with the animals that also call it

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20:40

SF Stairways: Shortest, Longest, and Steepest

Bay Curious ·

2025/09/18

There are over 900 stairways in San Franciso. Some are simple wooden stairs, others beautiful climbs covered in mosaics, or utilitarian concrete steps. It’s incredibly charming and a delightful surprise to many visitors. Bay Curious listener George Krause fell in love withe stairways between photo shoots and wanted to know which are the shortest, longest and steepest stairways in the city. Many of you are stair-curious too!Additional Resources: Stairways Crisscross the Hills of San

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15:30

The Bay Area’s Got A Wild Pig Problem

Bay Curious ·

2025/09/11

Originally imported to Monterey County for sport by a wealthy landowner in the 1920s, wild boars now number in the hundreds of thousands, and they are destroying sensitive habitats and suburban lawns all over the state, including Morgan Hill, Lafayette and San Jose. Bay Curious listener Travis Mowbray wondered if there were any creative solutions to the problem.Additional Resources: Invasion of the Grub Snatchers: How One Rich Guy's Boars Colonized California Read the transcript for this

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18:12

Amusement Parks of Yore: Playland-at-the-Beach and...

Bay Curious ·

2025/08/28

Summer is coming to an end, so we're taking a journey back in time to remember two amusement parks that have etched themselves into the imaginations of generations of Bay Area residents: Idora Park in Oakland and San Francisco's Playland at the Beach. This story originally aired in September of 2022, but we're bringing it back to celebrate the end of summer.Additional Resources Idora Park and Playland-at-the-Beach: Bay Area Amusement Parks of a Bygone Era Read the episode transcript

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26:14

Reversing Extinction? Sea Otters and Butterflies Hold...

Bay Curious ·

2025/08/21

The Bay Area is a biodiversity hotspot, home to species found nowhere else on Earth. But decades of urbanization have pushed many of these animals — and the ecosystems they depend on — to the edge. Can science bring them back? In this episode, we examine the remarkable comeback of the southern sea otter and an ongoing effort to resurrect the long lost Xerces blue butterfly.Additional Resources: Is Extinction Permanent? Resurrecting California's Xerces Blue Butterfly Healthy Otters Lead to

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19:57

Are Seagulls Native to the Bay Area?

Bay Curious ·

2025/08/14

Seagulls are everywhere in the Bay Area — flocking to Giant's games in San Francisco and crowding South Bay salt ponds. But are they actually native? Once seasonal visitors from Mono Lake, they've recently become year-round residents. We get to the bottom of this gull invasion.Additional Resources: Are California Gulls Native or Invasive to the Bay Area? Maybe Both Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia

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24:09

How Fremont Became Known As 'Little Kabul'

Bay Curious ·

2025/08/07

Over the past 40 years, Afghans have steadily immigrated to the East Bay town of Fremont, hoping to start new lives close to others who share their language and culture. We trace four waves of immigration and check in with Afghans who've chosen to settle in Fremont.Additional Resources: How Did Fremont Become Known As 'Little Kabul'? Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Got a question you

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46:22

Julia Morgan: A Thoroughly Bay Area Architect

Bay Curious ·

2025/07/31

Julia Morgan, the pioneering female architect, was born in San Francisco, raised in Oakland and educated at UC Berkeley and the the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She designed over 700 buildings, many of them in the Bay Area, and had a huge impact on the field of architecture. We dig into her life and legacy.Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Check out the New Angle: Voice podcast Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly

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19:20

How Daly City Became A Filipino Hub

Bay Curious ·

2025/07/24

Nearly one in three Daly City residents identify as Filipino, according to 2019 Census data. Bay Curious listener Ricky Tjandra wondered what makes this town just south of San Francisco such an international hub of Filipino life. We dig into more than a hundred years of history between the U.S and the Philippines and talk to current residents of Daly City.Additional Resources: In Daly City, the Bayanihan Spirit Is Alive and Well Read the transcript for this episode How Daly City

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14:25

What Does It Mean to Live In an Unincorporated Area?

Bay Curious ·

2025/07/17

Alameda is the second most populous county in the Bay Area, after Santa Clara. Oakland is the biggest city, but the county stretches all the way out to Livermore in the east and Fremont in the south. It’s a big swath of land and about half of it is unincorporated, including two areas known as Cherryland and Ashland. Bay Curious listener Sam Hopkins wondered what it means for an area to be unincorporated and the history of these two communities. Additional Resources: 150,000 People Live in

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32:47

A Summer Trip on the Rails

Bay Curious ·

2025/07/10

Train travel isn't as common as it used to be, but there's one Amtrak route that train enthusiasts love because it's so beautiful -- the California Zephyr. The route starts in Emeryville, runs through the California delta, stops in Sacramento and then heads and over the Sierra Nevada mountains, eventually terminating in Chicago. This ride is on a lot of people's bucket list for good reason. But the California railroads also played an important role in the food history of the state and in the Civil

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18:45

The Legacy of Alameda's Japanese-American Baseball Team

Bay Curious ·

2025/06/26

The island of Alameda has produced some great baseball players. Hall of Fame hitter Willie Stargell even has a street named after him! Some of those ballplayers were Japanese American. In the years between World War I and World War II, the Alameda Taiiku-Kai thrived with great players like Sai Tawata leading the team and the community. Bay Curious listener Sam Hopkins saw a plaque commemorating the team's home plate and wanted to learn more about the team's history.Additional Resources:

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22:16

Transamerica Pyramid: From 'Architectural Butchery'...

Bay Curious ·

2025/06/12

The Transamerica Pyramid, located in downtown San Francisco, is a skyline staple. But when it was proposed, people hated the idea of a towering symbol of capitalism so close to neighborhoods like North Beach and Chinatown. Turns out the block where the pyramid stands has a long and storied history. We dig into all that, as well as how public perception of the pyramid's place in the skyline has changed over the past 50 years.Additional Resources: The Transamerica Pyramid at 50: From

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15:59

What Is That Massive Tunnel on the Beach South of...

Bay Curious ·

2025/06/05

On a Daly City beach just south of Fort Funston there's a large tunnel carved into the cliff. Bay Curious listener Francisco Alvarado noticed it one day while walking his chihuahua, Little Bean, down the beach. The tunnel is large enough for a person to stand up and several feet wide, so of course Francisco's mind started racing. What could this mysterious tunnel be? Is it a remnant of life long ago? Or could it be something as mundane as a drain outlet? We head to Phillip Burton Memorial Beach, as

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33:49

What Is the PayPal Mafia?

Bay Curious ·

2025/05/29

Some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley have been popping up in political circles. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been advising President Trump; billionaire Peter Thiel introduced JD Vance to the president; and many more less well known folks are poised to take on positions of power in the new administration. So who are all these people and how are they connected? Bay Curious listener Anna Mistele has heard they're all part of something called the PayPal Mafia. She wants to know what that is and

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28:44

How Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs Became Iconic Bay Area...

Bay Curious ·

2025/05/22

If you've ever walked around Pier 39 in San Francisco or made a late-night exit from a concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, you're probably familiar with the bacon wrapped hot dog. But who are the vendors behind these savory snacks? And what's with the bacon and onions? Bay Curious listener Olivia Godfrey wanted to find out more.Additional Resources: How Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs Became One of the Bay Area’s Most Popular Street Foods Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for

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18:16

A Ford Factory Changed Milpitas, Then it Became a Mall

Bay Curious ·

2025/05/15

The Great Mall of Milpitas wasn't always a mall; it used to be a massive Ford factory. Bay Curious listener Brandon Choy wanted to know more about its history. The San Jose Assembly Plant opened in 1955 after relocating from Ford's outdated Richmond location. The new factory put Milpitas on the map, transforming a sleepy agricultural town into a thriving city. The factory’s opening also sparked historic social change: the construction of one of the first planned integrated neighborhoods in

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21:53

San Francisco Businesses That Date Back to the Gold Rush

Bay Curious ·

2025/05/08

Several Bay Area businesses have been around for a really long time. Normandin's car dealership in San Jose opened in 1875 and first sold horses and buggies. And KCBS is understood to be one of the first radio stations in the world, getting its start around 1909. But some San Francisco businesses go even further back, to the Gold Rush. Listener Scott Brenner wanted to know more about some of these places built to last.Additional Resources: Built to Last: Some San Francisco Businesses Date

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20:43

Why Are Private Schools So Popular In San Francisco?

Bay Curious ·

2025/05/01

When it comes to private school enrollment, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties are all well above the state average. But why? In today's episode, we'll explore the many reasons San Francisco families choose to send their kids to private schools. It's a trend rooted in the history of desegregation that's been hard to reverse.Additional Resources: Why Is Private Schooling So Popular in the San Francisco Bay Area? Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our

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2:30

Check Out KQED's New Show Hyphenación

Bay Curious ·

2025/04/30

Join host Xorje Andrés Olivares and guests to explore what it means to live within a hyphenation. Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to have easy conversations about hard things: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. Hyphenación—where conversation and cultura meet!

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